This removes another hurdle that has previously prevented many businesses and resellers from going Office 365. Being hosted from local data centers in Sydney and Melbourne means the performance should be significantly better as we have already seen with the Australian Azure data centers.

Apart from speed, another reason for not going Office 365 has been questions around data sovereignty but in today’s interconnected world this has becoming less and less of an issue because we all rely on emails which are unencrypted with guarantee of delivery right? However, for some, having their data hosted within their own country is now a reality with Office 365.

I believe the adoption rates here in Australia off Office 365 will significantly jump for the above two reasons let alone all the other benefits this announcement brings. There now really aren’t a lot of reasons why a business, especially a small business, shouldn’t be considering utilising some aspect of Office 365. The move will also put pressure on local IT resellers to look more seriously at re-tooling their business model to be more focused on Office 365 as demand for the products rises.

It is great to welcome Office 365 data centers to Australia and I look forward to all the benefits and opportunities they provide.